Hershey’s Kisses Cherry Cordial Creme are probably the first candy that I became aware of the existence of “limited edition” candies. It was back a few years ago, in 2007 I’d say, when I heard of Candyaddict.com making a petition to bring the flavor back since it had so many fans. Well, needless to say, they were successful! I’ve been seeing around this time of year since then. and I know it’ll sound odd, but this is the first time I actually bought a bag. Part of it is because cherry isn’t a favorite flavor of mine, plus there are so many other cool flavors candies have been coming in so I just didn’t have the time.

I picked this bag up on sale with the holiday candies, but imagine my surprise when I saw it among the Valentines Day candies when the store bought the new stock in. Needless to say, I got a deal! I wanted to explain why my package had snowflakes on it.

Opening the bag you get a very distinct smell. It’s very bright, fruity and red. It does have a “cherry” hint to it, but the kind of cherry medicine reminds you of. The wrapper is a pretty red raspberry color, accented with black stripes. The little paper sticking out the top read “cherry” and it easily identifies the type of kiss you’re looking at. You know, in case the color didn’t already suggest it.

The center of these Kisses are very fluid. hey immediately gush into my mouth as I bite down onto them. The flavor is, sweet at first, very syrupy. Then you start tasting hints of the milk chocolate, then the flavor of the cherry creme even more. It’s terribly sweet, and the flavor is a mix between real cherries and the flavor of red cough medicine. The chocolate takes an edge of the artificial flavor of the cherry, but I still manage to taste to bitter metallic tones of it. Not the worst cherry flavor I’ve ever had, but not the best either.

If you’re a fan of cherry cordials, I’d give these a try. Many friends who I shared these with enjoyed them, especially those who were fans of cordials to begin with. So i feel better about this, since it’s me having the problem, not the candy. It still amazes me how differently we all feel about certain candies. These Cherry Cordial Creme Kisses certainly have their fans, so if you’re curious at all, see why so many petitioned to being them back so long ago.

I had heard about these new “Drops” that Hershey’s was coming out with. Hershey’s seems to really like experimenting with methods on how to make their chocolate more accessible. From their line of minis, to the little bags of Kisses I saw in the checkout line in the grocery store. The front of this package reads: “No candy shell - No mess” which makes me suspect they’re trying to compete with M&Ms. What happened to the whole “melts in your mouth, not in your hands”? Maybe they abandoned that marketing tagline a long time ago and expect no one to remember it.

As with most Hershey products, first thing I do it look at the ingredient list on the back. Hershey’s has been cutting a lot of corners recently with their chocolate products, so I wanted to know what I was getting into. The ingredients are almost wholesome, to my surprise. No tropical oils are to be seen, which are the wost offender. Thankfully there’s coco butter listed but so is “PGPR” , so really it’s a step ahead of mockolate. It does use confectioner’s glaze instead of a shell, so vegans beware.

The drops are wide and flat-ish, like a button or a bean. They’re in between the size of a nickel and a quarter in diameter. They are shiny and have the word “Hershey’s” printed on the top. So overall, they’re very pretty to look at. Not quite as colorful and fun as M&Ms, but way more appealing that trying to eat Kisses or the baking morsels.

The flavor is exactly of Hershey’s chocolate. Starts of very sweet, with a creamy texture to it. With the sweetness there’s chocolatey notes to it which are very mild. There’s really no milk flavor here, just sweetness. There’s also that classic throat burn when you swallow.

These were a nice step in a new direction for Hershey’s, but it’s not exciting enough for me to keep buying them. As a candy taster my preferences in chocolate have gotten more sophisticated so I don’t find myself craving Hershey’s often. Also, the bag these come in make it hard to eat a little at a time, since you want to keep working at it. Portion control Sera, portion control.

Sometime the candy I find are completely by accident and therefore are impulse buys. This box of Icebreakers Ice Cubes Cool Lemon was exactly one of those purchases. I was standing on line in Target and I noticed them on the candy shelf. What made them stand out from all the other candy offerings was the yellow package and the words “Cool Lemon” on the front. Lemon? Lemon is one of my favorite citrus fruits and I don’t feel it’s used nearly enough in candy confections, even though I understand it’s a hard flavor to work with.

The packaging is nice with it’s small boxy size and vibrant colors. The shape makes it difficult to fit into pockets, but it will nestle into a purse nicely. The shape is necessary to keep the gum inside safe from being smooched. The size of gum pieces is comparable to a sugar cube. They’re quite cute actually. The pieces are a nice frosted yellow color and smell lightly of lemon.

The chew is immediately soft and inviting. The flavor is immediately of a sweet/tart lemon and it’s very authentic. I get notes of bitterness every so often as if I had bitten some of the fruit’s pith. There’s a cooling sensation along with it that doesn’t interfere with the flavor at all. The only down point is that the flavor doesn’t stay around for long, about 10 minutes in the taste started to disappear. I wouldn’t recommend this on the gum’s longevity, but the flavor is incredible.

If I was a bigger gum chewer, I’d buy these 24/7. Since I’m not, I’ll probably be turning to these to fill in my gum needs as my cravings demand. The lemon flavor is refreshing and look forward to enjoying them again soon.

I found the Irish Creme Hershey Kisses in stores again this year. I believe they premiered last year along the holiday sweets, so it’s really no surprise to me that they showed up for a seasonal encore. These were nestled right up next to the Mint Truffle Kisses, sporting festive coloring of dark forest green and gold. It’s a very attractive package and has that wonderful mix of familiar iconography and festive appeal.

The Kisses inside come in a gold wrappers with green sparkle/fireworks on them. On the top they have the iconic Kisses flag popping out, complete with “Irish Creme” printed on them in green ink. They smell…kinda chemical, like artificial rum flavoring. There’s a sweet scent to it too, from the chocolate. But neither smell reminds me of chocolate or Irish Creme.

You can see that inside the Kiss is creme colored filling. This looks promising!

The flavor starts off like chemicals. It tastes of fake alcohol flavoring, and it’s not very good. Then some sweetness kicks in that has a coco edge to it, but it’s not exactly chocolatey. The Irish creme center has a subtle buttery flavor to it, but it’s all drowned in the awful artificial flavoring. The texture is also more greasy than smooth, so it’s a very strange mouth experience. I couldn’t get past eating one of them.

Not impressed with these. I found the fakeness of the flavor overwhelming. I think even Irish Creme fans will disappointed in this, so I don’t really know who to recommend these to. Perhaps those who really want to try them for yourself or those who enjoy that fake rum flavoring you find in stores.

The Mint Truffle Kisses have been a holiday release for a few years now, but I have neglected to try them before this. There’s a few reasons for this: first, I really loved the Candy Cane Kisses that they originally released, but since in recent year they haven’t been made with real chocolate I haven’t been buying them. The second reason is that I felt the peppermint ones were good, so I was wary of how the Mint ones tastes as mint and chocolate can really be a so-so thing for me. My doubts aside, I felt it was time to finally give them a go.

The box is this minty, sea-foam green color displaying the Kisses in a row. Inside, the Kisses come in a dark green wrapper with silver snowflakes on them. They’re very festive and cute. They smell intensely of sweet mint, and it’s a nice aroma. I’m excited to try them.

The center of the Kiss is a bright green creme. It’s so pretty!

First off, these Kisses are not milk chocolate like most varieties. They’re dark chocolate again, and I feel this is a really good choice to pair with this minty interior. The flavor tarts off with a mild sweet, minty flavor that gradually grows more intense as the Kiss melts in your mouth. About halfway in you get the rich sweetness of the chocolate and the two make a very wonderful flavor combination. It’s like an Andes Mint on steroids. The chocolate flavor quickly dissipates once the Kiss is swallowed, but the mint taste lingers and leaves a wonderful warm feeling in your mouth. This is nice!

So color me surprised! I really, really liked these! They will replace the Candy Cane Kisses for my holiday candy fix, and the minty flavor is totally spot on. I really recommend these if you’re a mint/peppermint fan.